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Date:
Chair:
Minutes:
Venue
22nd December 2014
Chief Constable Andy Parker
Staff Officer Ross Campbell
Executive Team Conference Room, Leamington.
Attendance:
Apologies:
1.
Name:
Andy Parker (AP)
David Shaw (DS)
Anthony Bangham (AB)
Karen Manners (KM)
Richard Elkin (RE)
Ross Campbell
Capacity:
Chief Constable Warwickshire
Chief Constable West Mercia
DCC West Mercia
ACC Protective Services
Director of Enabling Services
Staff Officer
Lewis Benjamin (LB)
Heather Costello (HC)
Nicola Roth (NR)
Amanda Blakeman (ABL)
DCC Warwickshire
Director of Finance
Head of Finance
ACC Local Policing
Minutes of Previous Meeting (08.12.14) and matters arising
Minutes from previous meeting agreed.
WEB/049
24/11/14
ABL to arrange for submission to
the Police Innovation Fund to be
made around digital storage and
BWV.
ABL
Discharged
2.
WEB/051
08/12/14
Closed item
RE
WEB/052
08/12/14
Closed item
Discharged
LD/KQ
Alliance Programme (standing item)
AB stated that this week a presentation on the demand hub findings took place
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for senior officers. Another event will be held on 9th January for those who
couldn’t attend.
3.
AGG Update
Nothing of Note.
4.
Paid Time-off for Police Staff who perform Special Constabulary duties
RE introduced the paper and the recommendation was discussed. It was agreed
that the initiative was supported, but staff should complete the minimum 16
hours per month prior to the working day’s paid leave being granted.
5.
Police Officer Recruitment – Qualifications and Experience Required for
Entry
RE Introduced the paper and a discussion took place. The recommendation was
agreed.
6.
Discretionary Wearing of Body Armour
AB introduced the paper and a discussion took place. It was agreed that it would
be sensible to review the current position of the compulsory wearing of body
armour. The paper gives a number of options and alternatives, which includes
the wearing of white shirts with body armour.
DS stated that it should be compulsory in certain roles, such as ARV. There was
also agreement that we don’t want to be in a position where there are two
different sets of uniforms. KM stated that the thoughts of the workforce need to
be considered, the consultation should be from ground level up and that
consideration needs to be given to the current threat level.
The group agreed that this paper would go out for wider consultation with
officers and staff associations to seek their views. AB will work with ABL to
progress.
7.
Harmonised Awards
RE introduced the paper and the recommendation was agreed. It was also
agreed, that where an award involved joint teams from both forces, the
geography of the incident would dictate the ownership of the award.
8.
Closed item
9.
Use of personal mobile phones to capture evidential images
AB introduced the paper. Officers are using their own phones more frequently to
capture evidence. This paper is a pragmatic response.
The group agreed that the use of personal mobile phones should be the last
resort but consideration needs to be given to the equipment provided to officers.
Medium term solutions will be covered by bluelight works recommendations. The
SRO’s can deal with issues about camera functionality.
It was suggested that reference to ‘blackberry’ devices in the medium term,
should be replaced with ‘Smartphone’.
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The principles of the paper were agreed and AB will take the views back through
the Information Assurance Strategy Board.
10.
ATHENA
KM introduced the paper and thanked Wayne Parkes for his work in bringing it
together. The paper is a situation update with regards to Athena and outlines the
key requirements for the future implementation.
KM stated that Athena passed technical testing go live in April 2014. It will go
live operationally in Essex on 3rd February 2015 and the other six contracted
Athena forces will follow. The Alliance is not contracted legally to Athena at the
moment and was originally due to go live in March 2016. Due to some
movement created by other forces, a slot for December 2015 has now become
available. It was the recommendation of the paper that the Alliance should
consider moving the go live to this date. A discussion took place around the
risks of bringing the go live forward and AB stated that any date needs to be coordinated with the ongoing StraDA work and timescales. The group agreed that
a decision could not be made around the recommendations in this paper today.
AP stated that the 2 SRO’s and the new StraDA programme director need to be
involved in this decision. More work and consideration is required before a new
go live date is agreed. The view was that this is reviewed by the new StraDA
programme director in the first week of January.
ACTION – WEB-053 – AB to liaise with Gary Watson and the new StraDA
Programme Director to review bringing the Alliance Athena go live date
forward to December 2015 and for a decision to be made by the second
week of January.
11.
Police Officer Promotions
RE introduced the paper and a discussion took place in relation to each of the
recommendations.
3.1 The process to select candidates for interview should comprise 2 elements:
•
•
Command team support based on local knowledge of the candidate;
An assessment of the evidence provided on the application form by a
small panel of 2nd line managers from both Forces.
Agreed
3.2 The Marking panel, advised by HR, should agree the short list of candidates
for interview based on the highest scoring candidates and the number of
vacancies anticipated in the next 12 - 18 months.
Agreed
3.3 The word limit for each Personal Quality on the promotion application form
should be increased to 250 words.
Increase agreed, but to be amended to ‘no more than 300’ words.
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3.4 The number of Personal Qualities on the promotion application form should
be reduced from 7 to 4.
Agreed
3.5 The Operational Competence Exercise should be discontinued for Chief
Inspector; Superintendent and Chief Superintendent promotion boards.
Agreed, but should be considered for any external processes.
3.6 The final promotion selection decision should be based solely on the
interview score.
Agreed
3.7 The majority of promotion Board interviews could be conducted by ACCs
and/or Superintending ranks.
Agreed. DS stated that he wanted Chief Constable to chair Supt and Ch.Supt
boards and it should be the most appropriate, available officers. RE stated that
when dates for process are known then PA support needs to prioritise CO’s
diaries to ensure these dates are facilitated.
It was also agreed that evidence provided by candidates need not have a time
limit, but they should provide the most recent and relevant evidence.
12.
Information Management Review
Recommendations agreed.
13.
AOB
• AB discussed the Police and Crime Plan, and ongoing discussions that
are taking place as a step towards an aspirational Alliance Strategic Plan.
AB suggested that there should be an overview plan, above and beyond
the current plan highlighting alliance overview vs. the statutory position.
This will need to be signed off mid January. AP stated that this desire has
been articulated to the PCC.
•
DS highlighted that the JPV is coming up at AGG so everyone needs to
be fully briefed. RE stated that this was in hand.
It was agreed that Martin Jelley should be invited to the overnight Chief
Officer session in February, and he will be invited to all key meetings in
relation to decision making for issues next year prior to him commencing as
the new Chief Constable in April.
Next Meeting:
Monday 5th January 2015, Telecon
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